Preakness Contenders

Preakness Contenders

Lookin at Lee

Pending

Confirmed

Lineage:
Sire:
Lookin at Lucky
Dam:
Langara Lass

Race Records:
10-2-3-2
Gross Earnings:
$852,795

Named in honor of one of his owners, Looking At Lee got an ideal rail-skimming trip in the Kentucky Derby, saving ground while far back in the early stages before finding room around the far turn and surging past tiring horses to finish second at odds of 33-1, five lengths ahead of Battle of Midway.

Lookin At Lee, a son two-time champion and 2010 Preakness winner Lookin At Lucky, has been fed a steady diet of stakes since breaking his maiden last July at Ellis Park. He won the Ellis Park Juvenile, was second in the Iroquois (G3) and Breeders’ Futurity (G1), and closed to be fourth behind Breeders’ Futurity winner Classic Empire in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1).

Based at Oaklawn Park over the winter to open his sophomore season, Lookin At Lee finished third in the Southwest (G3) and sixth in the Rebel (G2) before launching a late rally for third behind Classic Empire in the Arkansas Derby (G1), a move that would look familiar three weeks later.

Looking At Lee began his career at the famed El Primero Training Center in Laredo, Texas, founded by Keith and Marilyn Asmussen, the parents of his Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen.

Jockey

Corey Lanerie

A winner of more than 4,100 career races, Lafayette, La. native Corey Lanerie made his Preakness debut in 2016 aboard Cherry Wine, closing from next-to-last to edge Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist by a nose for second behind Exaggerator.

Lanerie’s grandfather was a trainer and his father, Gerald, is a jockey-turned-trainer. He grew up around horses and began riding at non-sanctioned bush tracks as a youngster on weekends.

His first winner as a professional came aboard High Hopes at Evangeline Downs on April 19, 1991. Lanerie has gone on to win more than three dozen graded stakes since his first, the 1999 Razorback Handicap (G3).

Before moving to the Kentucky-Louisiana circuit in 2005, Lanerie, 42, dominated in Texas with four riding titles at Lone Star Park from 1999 to 2003 along with championships at Sam Houston and Retama Park. He has captured 10 of the last 11 meets at Churchill Downs, owns riding titles at Ellis Park and has spent the past four winters at Gulfstream Park in South Florida.

In 2009, Lanerie earned his first Grade 1 victory with Hooh Why in the Ashland Stakes at Keeneland. He was voted the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award winner by his peers in 2014.

Owner

L and N Racing LLC

Tulsa, Okla.-based friends Lee Levinson and Don Nelson campaign horses as L and N Racing, a group that includes Levinson’s sons Mike, a financial officer for his father’s oil and tobacco companies, and Andy, president and CEO of IBC Bank’s Oklahoma branch.

Lifelong racing fans, Levinson is a Tulane University graduate and frequent visitor to the Fair Grounds while in college who purchased his first horses more than 30 years ago. Nelson, the first assistant district attorney and chief prosecutor for District 24 outside Tulsa, has owned horses with his wife, Carol, since pari-mutuel racing came to Oklahoma in the early 1980s.

Levinson and Nelson bought Lookin At Lee for $70,000 at Keeneland’s September 2015 yearling sale and he was named by Mike Levinson after his father. L and N Racing ran its first horses in 2015 and has earned over $1 million in purse earnings from 48 lifetime starters.

Lookin At Lee’s victory in the $75,000 Ellis Park Juvenile last August was the first stakes winner for the owners. His second-place finish in the 2016 Iroquois (G3) was their first time in a graded stakes.

Trainer

Steve Asmussen

One of the nation’s most prolific trainers, in terms of starts and wins, the 51-year-old South Dakota native has two Preakness victories to his credit, with Curlin in 2007 and filly Rachel Alexandra in 2009.

A two-time Horse of the Year, Curlin was inducted into racing’s Hall of Fame in 2014. Asmussen and Rachel Alexandra joined him last summer, were enshrined together among the Class of 2016.

His parents, Keith and Marilyn, are both trainers, but Asmussen aspired to be a jockey, taking out his riding license at age 16. He rode for three years before struggles with weight forced his retirement. His brother, Cash, was the Eclipse Award-winning apprentice of 1979 and a European champion rider.

Asmussen began training thoroughbreds and quarter horses in New Mexico in1986, and his first major thoroughbred was Valid Expectations, who won seven stakes races from 1995-97. Dreams Galore gave Asmussen his first Grade 1 victory in the 1999 Mother Goose at Belmont Park.

A finalist in 2004, 2005 and 2007, Asmussen won a then-record 622 races, including the 4,000th of his career, in 2008 to capture his first Eclipse Award as top trainer. He repeated as Eclipse winner in 2009, setting a single-season record of 650 wins from 2,944 starters, earning nearly $22 million in purses, and reaching the 5,000 win plateau on Sept. 11.

On April 1, 2015, Asmussen became only the second trainer with 7,000 career wins in North America with Drama Coach at Oaklawn Park. Since joined by Jerry Hollendorfer, he trails only all-time leader Dale Baird on the all-time victory list.

In all, Asmussen has had six Preakness starters, most recently Daddy Nose Best, who ran ninth in 2012. He was third with Astrology in 2011 and fifth with Snuck In in 2000 and Easyfromthegitgo in 2002.